Council Member’s Recent Dwis Are Cause for Concern for Mayor

The mayor of Knightdale, North Carolina, asked a 60-year-old town council member to resign last week. This occurred after the councilman was arrested for the second time recently on driving while intoxicated charges; it was his third arrest in four months. Within hours of the most recent arrest, the council member was admitted to the hospital for undisclosed reasons; one local paper reports that he is now officially on medical leave.

Back on March 27, the council member was taken into custody and charged with reckless driving, failing to report a motor vehicle accident and possession of marijuana. Subsequently, on July 22, officers from the state Highway Patrol arrested him for DWI and filed an action seeking to revoke his driving privileges. Most recently, on July 27, he was arrested by an officer who suspected him of DWI.

The councilman reportedly admitted to having had four beers at a local restaurant prior to his most recent arrest. When stopped by a Knightdale police officer a little after 9:45 p.m., he declined to take field sobriety tests according to police.

In the March incident, the councilman was riding in a vehicle driven by his roommate. According to police records, he grabbed the vehicle’s steering wheel during a verbal argument, resulting in a single-car crash in a nearby field. Police later claimed to have found marijuana in the councilman’s home; the visit to the home was in response to a 911 call reporting that the council member and his roommate were having a physical fight.

The councilman quit his position as the chairman of the town’s Public Safety Committee. He said that he felt that action was warranted in order to avoid any impression that he was doing anything that could be regarded as unethical. None of the charges violates the town’s code of conduct or ethics policies.

He told reporters that he plans to enter a not guilty plea on the most recent charges. He will also ask the judge to set aside the marijuana charge, he said, because the drugs belonged to his roommate.